Solar Terrestrial Activity Report

Activity chart

Last major update issued on March 3, 2016 at 04:35 UT.

Charts (* = updated daily) Data and archive
  Solar wind (*) Solar and geomagnetic data - last month (*)
  Electron fluence (*) Archived daily reports and monthly data from 2003.01 (February 1, 2016)
Solar cycle Solar cycles 23-24 (March 1, 2016) Historical solar and geomagnetic data charts 1954-2006 (April 5, 2007)
  Cycle 24 progress (March 1, 2016) Noon SDO sunspot count 1K Reference: 4K (large file) (*)
  Solar cycles 1-24 (July 17, 2015) POES auroral activity level October 2009 - December 2012
  Comparison of cycles 21, 22, 23 and 24 (March 1, 2016) 3rd SSN Workshop, Tucson, 2013
  Comparison of cycles 12, 13, 14, 16 and 24 (March 1, 2016) 4th SSN Workshop, Locarno, 2014
  Solar polar fields vs. solar cycles (January 29, 2016)  

Recent activity

The geomagnetic field was quiet to unsettled on March 2. Solar wind speed at SOHO ranged between 356 and 458 km/s, weakly under the influence of effects from CH717.

Solar flux at 20h UTC on 2.8 GHz was 98.2 (decreasing 25.1 over the last solar rotation). The 90 day 10.7 flux at 1 AU was 103.7. The Potsdam WDC planetary A index was 6 (STAR Ap - based on the mean of three hour interval ap indices: 6.0). Three hour interval K indices: 21122311 (planetary), 31223311 (Boulder).

The background x-ray flux is at the class B2 level.

At the time of counting spots (see image time), spots were observed in 13 active regions using 2K resolution (SN: 186) and 9 active regions using 1K resolution (SN: 115) SDO images on the visible solar disk.

Region 12506 [S07W49] decayed slowly and quietly.
Region 12508 [N06W33] decayed slowly and quietly.
New region 12510 [N06E47] emerged on March 1 and was numbered by SWPC the next day.
New region 12511 [N03E58] rotated into view on February 29 and received its NOAA number two days later. SWPC includes AR S5145 in this region.
New region 12512 [N11E27] emerged on March 1 with SWPC numbering the region the following day.
New region 12513 [N11E78] rotated into view.

Spotted regions not numbered (or interpreted differently) by SWPC:
S5141 [N09W16] decayed slowly and quietly.
S5145 [N07E58] decayed slowly and quietly.
S5147 [S11W03] was quiet and stable.
New region S5149 [S02E12 ] emerged with tiny spots.
New region S5150 [N16W50] emerged with a tiny spot.
New region S5151 [S14E27] emerged with a tiny spot.
New region S5152 [N07E38] emerged with a tiny spot.

C2+ flares:

Magnitude Peak time (UT) Location AR Recorded by Comment
           

Flare activity (SDO/EVE/ESP XRS-B proxy)

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs)

February 29 - March 2: No obviously Earth directed CMEs were observed in available LASCO imagery.

Coronal holes

[Coronal hole history (since October 2002)]
[Compare today's report to the situation one solar rotation ago: 28 days ago 27 days ago 26 days ago]

A northern hemisphere coronal hole (CH719) was in an Earth facing position on March 1. A trans equatorial coronal hole (CH718) rotated across the central meridian on March 2.

Propagation

Long distance low and medium frequency (below 2 MHz) propagation along paths north of due west over upper middle latitudes is fair. Propagation on long distance northeast-southwest paths is poor.

Forecast

The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet on March 3 becoming quiet to active on March 4-5 due to effects from CH719 and CH718.

Coronal holes (1) Coronal mass ejection (2) M and X class flares (3)
     

1) Effects from a coronal hole could reach Earth within the next 5 days. When the high speed stream has arrived the color changes to green.
2) Effects from a CME are likely to be observed at Earth within 96 hours.
3) There is a possibility of either M or X class flares within the next 48 hours.

Green: 0-30% probability, Yellow: 30-70% probability, Red: 70-100% probability.

Active solar regions


(Click on image for 2K resolution). 4K resolution. Compare to the previous day's image.
0.5K image

When available the active region map has a coronal hole polarity overlay where red (pink) is negative and blue is positive.

Data for all numbered solar regions according to the Solar Region Summary provided by NOAA/SWPC. Comments are my own, as is the STAR spot count (spots observed at or inside a few hours before midnight) and data for regions not numbered by SWPC or where SWPC has observed no spots. SWPC active region numbers in the table below and in the active region map above are the historic SWPC/USAF numbers.

Active region Date numbered
detected
Spot count Location at midnight Area Classification SDO / HMI 4K continuum
image with magnetic polarity overlays
Comment
SWPC Magnetic
(SDO)
SWPC STAR Current Previous
2K 1K
12506 2016.02.22
2016.02.24
5 20 9 S07W48 0110 CSO DAO images/AR_12506_20160301_2345.png

area: 0160

12509 2016.02.25
2016.02.29
      N09W14        

location: N09W10

S5131 2016.02.25       N20W46            
12508 2016.02.26
2016.02.28
  1   N06W34 0002   AXX  
S5134 2016.02.26       S07W07            
S5136 2016.02.27       S02W44            
S5137 2016.02.27       S21W36            
S5138 2016.02.28       N20W22            
S5140 2016.02.28       S17E17          
S5141 2016.02.29   2 2 N09W16 0006   BXO  
12511 2016.02.29
2016.03.02
3 5 2 N05E57 0010 BXO CAO SWPC count includes AR S5145

area: 0040

location: N03E58

S5143 2016.02.29       N24W32            
12512 2016.03.01
2016.03.02
3 10 4 N11E28 0010 BXO DRI area: 0040
S5145 2016.03.01   3 2 N07E58 0030   HAX  
12510 2016.03.01
2016.03.02
3 4 2 N05E51 0030 CRO HRX area: 0015

location: N06E47

S5147 2016.03.01   4 1 S11W03 0011   BXO  
12513 2016.03.02 1 1 1 N11E84 0060   HSX   location: N11E78

area: 0090

S5149 2016.03.02   3 2 S02E12 0007   AXX    
S5150 2016.03.02   1   N16W50 0002   AXX    
S5151 2016.03.02   1   S14E27 0001   AXX    
S5152 2016.03.02   1   N07E38 0003   AXX    
Total spot count: 15 56 25  
Sunspot number: 65 186 115  (total spot count + 10 * number of spotted regions)
Weighted SN: 28 82 51  (Sum of total spot count + classification weighting for each AR. Classification weighting: X=0, R=3, A/S=5, H/K=10)
Relative sunspot number (Wolf number): 72 84 92 k * (sunspot number)
As of February 19, 2015: k = 1.1 for SWPC, k = 0.45 for MSN 2K, k = 0.80 for MSN 1K (MSN=Magnetic Sunspot Number)

Monthly solar cycle data

Month Average solar flux International sunspot number
(WDC-SILSO) (4)
Smoothed sunspot number (4) Average ap
(3)
Measured 1 AU
2014.02 170.3
(cycle peak)
166.3 146.1 (cycle peak) 110.5 (+1.2) 10.70
2014.04 143.9 144.8 112.5 116.4 (+2.1) (solar max) 7.88
2015.01 141.9 137.3 93.0 89.3 (-2.9) 9.46
2015.02 129.1 126.0 66.7 86.1 (-3.2) 9.92
2015.03 125.9 124.6 54.5 82.2 (-3.9) 16.14
2015.04 128.8 129.7 75.3 78.8 (-3.4) 10.73
2015.05 120.0 122.6 88.8 76.0 (-2.8) 8.29
2015.06 122.3 126.1 66.5 72.0 (-4.0) 13.15
2015.07 107.0 110.8 66.4 68.2 (-3.8) 8.83
2015.08 105.4 108.0 64.6 66.3 (-1.9) 14.58
2015.09 101.7 102.7 78.1 (66.0 projected, -0.3) 15.78
2015.10 104.1 103.3 61.7 (65.3 projected, -0.7) 14.02
2015.11 109.3 106.9 63.2 (63.2 projected, -2.1) 12.09
2015.12 113.1 109.5 57.7 (61.5 projected, -1.7) 14.29
2016.01 103.4 100.1 56.6 (59.8 projected, -1.7) 9.4
2016.02 103.6 101.0 57.2 (57.4 projected, -2.4) 9.2
2016.03 (97.5)   3.4 (2A) / 52 (2B) / 79.5 (2C) (54.5 projected, -3.1) (6.2)

1) Running average based on the daily 20:00 UTC observed solar flux value at 2800 MHz.
2A) Current impact on the monthly sunspot number based on the Boulder (NOAA/SWPC) sunspot number (accumulated daily sunspots / month days).
2B) Boulder SN current month average to date.
2C) STAR SDO 1K Wolf number 30 day average.
3) Running average based on the quicklook and definitive Potsdam WDC ap indices. Values in red are based on the definitive international GFZ Potsdam WDC ap indices.
4) Updated to new data set from WDC-SILSO on July 1, 2015

This report has been prepared by Jan Alvestad. It is based on the analysis of data from whatever sources are available at the time the report is prepared. All time references are to Universal Time. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.

SDO images are courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.